Dear Biomech-list reader,
Some 6 months ago a huge debate on joint
attitudes took place on this e-mail facility. That debate was an
occasion to exchange ideas about many aspects of 3-D kinematics. Since
I participated in the debate mailing a couple of messages, a number of
you requested me details about my matrix approach and about a software
library called SPACE_LIB. I promised to realize a free-of-charge ver-
sion of that software.

Some months have passed, and I am happy to inform you that an academic
pre-version of SPACE_LIB has just been completed. For non-profit
activities, it is offered free-of-charge in source code with a user's
manual. The manual of about 40 pages including application examples
is integrated by a few papers describing the mathematical bases of
SPACE_LIB.

The library has been used at my university in robotics and
biomechanics for the solution of direct and inverse dynamic problems.
An interesting biomechanics application concerns the trajectory
prediction of an athlete during horse-vaulting.
In order to give a little more information about SPACE_LIB I enclose
at the end of this mail a copy of the first page of the user's manual.

If someone is interested in receiving a copy of SPACE_LIB, he/she
should type, sign and send to me (ordinary mail, not e-mail) the
gentlemen's agreement enclosed at the end of this mail.
The library will be sent by surface mail, please allow 4-5 weeks for
processing your request.

SPACE_LIB is a software library useful for the realization of programs for
the kinematic and dynamic analysis of systems of rigid bodies. This library
is currently used in Robotics and Biomechanics. It has been developed at the
Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Brescia.

The library is intended as an aid in writing user programs for the analysis of
mechanical systems following a particular methodology based on 4*4 matrices
[2-11]. This approach can be considered a generalization of the Transformation
Matrix Approach proposed by Denavit and Hartenberg [1].

The main feature of this methodology is that it allows the development of the
analysis of systems of rigid bodies in a systematic way simplifying the
symbolic manipulation of equations as well as the realization of efficient
programs.

* About this manual.

This USER'S MANUAL is written assuming that the reader knows both the
C-language and the theory on which SPACE_LIB is based. The latter subject is
widely described in the references. Since SPACE_LIB has been developed in
successive steps, some details contained in the references can differ from
pieces of information here contained; in this case, please refer to the
present manual.

This manual contains

1) General information on the use of SPACE_LIB.
2) A commented directory of the library.
3) The contents of two header files.
4) Two sample programs with examples of use.
5) A Reference list of papers which describe the mathematical bases of
SPACE_LIB.

* Technical Information.

SPACE_LIB is written in the C-language in accordance with the Draft-Proposed
ANSI standard. It has been developed under the MS-DOS operative system using
the Microsoft C-compiler Version 5.1. The library has also been successfully
used on VAX computers under the VMS operating system.

* Authors' notes.

The authors consider the present version of SPACE_LIB as a "preliminary
version" that will be improved in the future. The code could contain errors
or the documentation could have lacks in some parts. For this reason the
authors stimulate any suggestion and errors reporting by the users.

I know that SPACE_LIB can be shared with anybody else with the only
restriction that before using it, he must sign and send to the authors
a copy of this agreement.

The authors will be happy to receive a copy of any publication of
results obtained using SPACE_LIB as well as any suggestion in order to
improve the library or to correct possible errors. Possible future
up-dates of the library will be sent to everyone who will report
his/her practical use of SPACE_LIB.